June 2026

A great bit of 1873 Gothic Revival in Burwood Road Hawthorn – which feels a bit enigmatic, since it’s near but not part of the shopping strip down Glenferrie Road.

It was actually built as a bank, for the ES&A, which had decided to go for impressive Gothic instead of the usual sober Classical. It was designed by Leonard Terry, in brick with carved stone dressings – I like the elaborate foliated capitals a lot.

The managers residence was upstairs, and behind, and it’s all rather large, considering Hawthorn was just developing then. It was more like scattered large blocks than suburbia, and the shops probably just a cluster of single storey places. The railway didn’t get here till 1882, though it got to Hawthorn Station, a 15 min walk away, in 1861. Maybe the population was relatively wealthy and growing rapidly, since the main part of Immaculate Conception next door was completed by 1869.

The bank moved to a new one in Glenferrie Rd in 1923, and this became the Manresa catholic centre, now the parish offices. The Heritage Victoria citation says the stair hall and drawing room upstairs are notably intact.

The manse next to the church is polychrome brick instead of Gothic but fits the theme. Then there’s a 20s classical hall, and a some more proper Gothic which was an undertaker, and now is literally only a front wall.

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